Music Boxes

Grade 5

In Music class, students worked on composition, then ultimately wrote their own songs. Students punched the notes into sheet music strips that could be loaded into music box mechanisms. The project was cool enough on its own, but in collaboration with the Music Teacher, we designed, cut, assembled, and painted wooden structures around the music boxes. When preparing the wood to be cut, we focused on measurement and using materials without waste (using math to determine which pieces would fit best together given the dimensions of the sheet of wood). The design process presented many challenges, but, in the end, students overcame and made beautiful music boxes that played their own music.